Customer Reviews

Short Cuts

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In society, people end up with careers and lives through situational opportunity and the coincidence of chance that struck them at a sudden moment. Short Cuts grasps this notion as a large number of characters, 22 to be precise, interact directly or indirectly through a wide variety of different opportunities and chances. The connection is that these character's ties are of variable closeness, as some know each other, some get to know each other, and some never get to know of the existence of one another, yet every action has an effect on everyone. It is this moment, which Robert Altman seizes, as Short Cuts becomes a tale of the little and epic episodes of life.

Robert Altman does a marvelous job in depicting the small daily deceits that are made in order to keep family life intact. The idea is based on Raymond Carver's work which Altman freely adapts onto the silver screen, and he does a marvelous job grabbing Carver's atmosphere. The atmosphere is of a detached society where no true values or customs exists, and only where a temporary fix can provide instant happiness. This is supported by an excellent cast consisting of talented actors such as Andie MacDowell, Jack Lemmon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anne Archer, Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Robert Downey Jr., and Tim Robbins among many others.

In the opening scene, a large number of helicopters take off into the sunset while families can hear about threats of the Medfly through a broadcaster. The hovering sound of helicopters roams over the Los Angles urban and suburban communities as the news continues of the helicopters that are set out to spray an insecticide over L. A. in order to combat the threatening Medfly. Fearfully, families close their windows and doors in concern of possible side effects of the insecticide. The cinematic introduction of Short Cuts brings the audience an anxious trepidation of an unforeseen looming future, and it displays how differently people deal with the worrisome situation.

In the middle of the Medfly tragedy there are ten different stories intermingled as they all affect one another in different ways. These stories contain love, deceit, suffering, denial, fear, envy, forgiveness, and death as the different characters explore new ways of dealing with life. The approach used to face the difficulties of life often contain some sort of short cut, such as alcohol, infidelity, lies, and denial to provide a quick fix. However, the short cuts taken by the people often end up being much more painful to involved parties as it does not involve taking the time to tell the truth or be frank with oneself or others.

The many tales of Short Cuts concern men such as an unfaithful police officer, three men on a fishing trip finding a dead body, a stalking baker, and a vengeful helicopter pilot. These men often to try to express an outward masculinity, but the maleness looks feeble as they find themselves forced into a situation where they have to be nurturing and caring. This inconsistency supports the notion that the men seek a short cut of being male by behaving in an overtly tough manner, but instead the men find themselves in a quandary as they find their wife or girlfriend upset.

The stories also have interesting quick fixes in regards to the women, who either drink themselves into oblivion or live in denial. For example, there is the story of a jazz singing alcoholic mother that drowns her own sorrows in alcohol instead of communicating with her depressed musically gifted daughter. There is also a housewife that runs a phone sex business while changing the diapers and feeding their infant, but when her husband wants to have some fun she is quick to remember something in order to ruin the moment. In addition, there is the waitress who has an alcoholic boyfriend who seems to have advanced on her daughter in a moment of drunkenness to which the mother blames the alcohol.

The different stories all have something in common, as all characters avoid the truth and try to find an instant fix around the corner. Nonetheless, the film is not about the stories, but about the people in the story and how these people deal with joy and misery from day to day while things they cannot control affect them. Altman provides this cinematically through jumping around to the different stories while telling each tale in a disconnected manner that enhances the detached atmosphere and brings human behavior to the focus. The behavior of the people seems to become a product of the environment and the way they have been nurtured, which gives the film some interesting psychosocial insights.

After a three hour long journey the audience will have experienced a first class venture into cinema as the tale offers several possible narrations of what happens. This is much due to Altman and his unique storytelling, which has been seen in both Nashville (1975) and The Player (1992). It is also a result of the brilliant performance of a magnificent cast guided into an every day rut, which many people go through. Short Cuts will ultimately offer the viewer a fulfilling cinematic experience, which presents much contemplation upon every day behavior.

Altman's singature classic with twenty two characters and ten nearly distinct tales. Imagine the ingenuity required to interweave all of that into a seamless whole, but Altman manages the feat deliciously.

While the individual threads may coax discussion, it is their blending that enables a variety of perspectives. Most of them are poignant, for instance the life of a pool cleaner and his wife who vocalizes orgasms on the phone in her job as a tele-sex worker while changing her kids' diapers. Or the life of a couple whose son has been in a tragic accident that brings their lives to an abrupt halt. Etc.

Be warned, many of these vignettes, while very tautly scripted and cleverly screenplayed, remain "unresolved," which may not work for some viewers. Personally I feel that films like this are more genuine reflections of the world in which we live: people often don't change, questions are frequently left unanswered, and unbecoming things do happen every day.

It's a pure pleasure to find a movie that weaves such a deep and intelligent tapestry of human lives, with all their idiosynchratic travails and triumphs. An absolute gem for you to own, not just rent.

While Magnolia has often been compared (usually favourably) with Short Cuts, this is a fine chance for those of you who haven't done so to do a compare and contrast, 10 years after the mighty Altman put this out. I don't fancy Magnolia's odds though.

Based on a series of stories by Raymond Carver, this is perhaps Altman's most consistent, accessible work. Unfortunately, he followed it with 'Pret a Porter', but lets not concern ourselves with that.

What is interesting is how many of the ideas and characters seem to have been lifted outright by Paul Anderson (from the sketchy cop, to the troubled kid, to the overlapping storylines), but Altman pulls the whole thing off infinitely better, without the need to get Tom Cruise doing daft speeches about penises.

The cast is absolutely outstanding, though Tom Waits is probably my favourite, as a sleazy chauffeur. Even Andi McDowell is good, and that is saying something.

Make sure you put aside a few hours to appreciate this, cause it's a long one - but it doesn't drag for a second. Outstanding.

I originally read the book by Carver, "Shortcuts", and expected, as usual, to be disappointed by the screen rendition.

Much to my surprise, the film was incredibly well-done. Despite it's 3+ hours in length, I never once left the theatre to use the bathroom, (afraid I'd miss something important) or looked at my watch.

This is a film about the unpredictability of life and how groups of strangers in the same California city cross paths, and affect each other in very profound ways.

Ensemble casting is not usually a big favorite of mine, but this film contains some of the best acting roles, by some of the most well-known actors, in film history. And that is not an under-statement.

Lily Tomlin, Tim Robbins, Andie MacDowell, Julianne Roberts and Jennifer Jason Leigh are brilliant, funny, and believeable characters that do Carver's characterizations true justice. Even Huey Lewis, Tom Waits and Lyle Lovett, especially Waits, make for interesting and believeable characters.

Jack Lemmon in one of his last performances is brilliant as the estranged father of a newscaster, who is brought back together with his son at the hospital after Lilly Tomlin's character accidentally hits his grandson with her car. Tomlin is so likeable and real in this film I couldn't get over it. What a tremendous actress she is!

This is one movie where I laughed hysterically one minute, and felt like crying the next. It's a movie about life's every day emotions, up's and down's, unpredictability, family, relationships, jealously and trust. Everyone can relate to a little part of what each character is going through in the film, and it draws you in and keeps you tied to the screen like few movies have the power of doing.

While the plot(s) here don't sound like anything new or exciting, the characters and stories are so interesting, and inter-twined in such a way, that it grabs your interest from the start and doesn't let you go until the final second.

This film throws away stereotypes, glitzy lifestyles, female-only nudity and other false pretentions so common in Hollywood films. It's raw, disturbing at times, emotional, humorous, a little bit over-the-top, and suspenseful...a little of everything.

This story reminds us that no matter who we are or where we live, that life is never under our total control. We are all affected by the same events, and we all have the same basic feelings of anger, jealously, hatred, mis-trust and happiness on a daily basis - regardless of what social class we reside in nor how "in control" we think our lives really are.

Strangers affect our lives just as profoundly as people we know very well.

This film deserves a place in film and literary history. I can't recommend a better movie, it's truly an amazing piece of work.

Three and a half days in the life of Los Angeles. Tess (Annie Ross) and her daughter Zoe (Lori Singer) are a very musical family. Mother sings jazz at a seedy club where disagreeable thug Joe Robbins (Darnell Williams) hangs out boasting about his violent history and threatening people who complain about his poor manners. Zoe is only really able to communicate with other human beings in the languages of classical cello and self-harm. She gives a concert attended by Marian and Ralph Wyman (Julianne Moore and Matthew Modine) who strike up a conversation with the audience neighbours Claire and Stuart Kane (Anne Archer and Fred Ward) and end up inviting them to dinner. Claire works as a clown entertaining children while Stuart goes off fishing with his yahoo-ish friends Gordon (Buck Henry) and Vern (Huey Lewis). They find a young woman's corpse in the river but leave it there until they finish their fishing before they bother to report it. En route they had stopped off at a diner and had a good leer at the rear end of waitress Doreen (Lily Tomlin), who has a stormy marriage to Earl (Tom Waits), who is given to getting blind drunk at the same club where Tess performs. Next door to Tess and Zoe live the Finnegans, Ann (Andie McDowell) and her newsreader husband Howard (Bruce Davison), with their little boy Casey (Lane Cassidy) whose birthday is fast approaching. So Ann visits baker Andy Birkower (Lyle Lovett) to order a very special cake. But then Casey is run over by Doreen on his way to school and has to go to hospital where, just to complicate life, Paul (Jack Lemmon), Howard's long estranged, gloriously self-centred and tactless father, who cannot remember his ailing grandson's name, decides to show up on a bridge-mending mission. (After, that is, a brief flirt with Claire who is there to perform in the paediatric ward.) Meanwhile Andy the Baker is getting very aggravated by the Finnegans' sudden and, to him, unaccountable, complete loss of interest in the cake he has so painstakingly made and is now calling them about. The doctor looking after Casey is none other than Ralph Wyman and, while he is working, Marion is back home painting nudes that she thinks are `beyond natural colour' and hanging out with her sister Sherri (Madeleine Stowe). Sherri is married to oafish policeman Gene (Tim Robbins) who, when he isn't hitting on Claire under the pretext of issuing a caution for `driving too slowly', is having a torrid affair with Betty (Frances McDormand) much to the anger and distress of her husband Stormy (Peter Gallagher), a helicopter pilot working overtime due to a local medfly infestation, who has just bought her a rather lovely cake from Andy the Baker. Tess meanwhile is trying to secure the services of the Finnegan's pool-man Jerry (Chris Penn). Jerry is married to Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and has decidedly ambivalent feelings about her making a living by talking dirty to men down the `phone. He is also great pals with Bill (Robert Downey Jr.), a trainee horror-movie make-up guy, who wife Honey (Lili Taylor) is the Doreen's daughter and no fan of Earl who, as does Jerry the next evening, finds himself on the receiving end of Joe Robbins' hard man routine at the club. Are you following this OK? I've really only set the stage and it gets plenty more complicated.

Altman can be a rather hit and miss director and this long movie, stitched together from materials out of Robert Carver's short stories, is definitely one of the hits. Like `Nashville' it presents a complex tapestry of a plot woven together from the intersecting lives over a few days of some 20-plus characters. (He does something similar in `A Wedding' and the later `Gosford Park' but there the intersection is effected more straightforwardly by a single social event at a single location while `Nashville' and `Short Cuts' sprawl over a whole city.) It's a style of film that is sometimes imitated (notably by Paul Thomas Anderson in `Magnolia') but nobody does it like Altman. As in `Nashville', we have brilliantly observed characters, speaking astonishing dialogue, seemingly artless but in fact gloriously considered camera movements and extraordinary effective use of music. Again as with `Nashville', the film paints a relentlessly bleak picture of human life with its parade of hopelessly hateful, damaged or just desperately unhappy people drifting aimlessly through their largely empty lives. The focus of this movie is more on relationships. In `Nashville' the typical character is desperately lonely; here we mainly encounter couples locked into marriages which, in most cases, are of a sort all to apt to make desperate loneliness seem like a good idea. I think `Nashville' the greater film, not least because of its, to my mind, significantly more effective and powerful ending, but they are both entirely exceptional.

The "auteur theory", originally generated by the Fench New-Wave, is the idea that the director is THE almost singular artist in creating the film. The director is the god, not the writer, nor the actors. He's the guy who made the film. He's the god-all-mighty for a film.

Robert Altman, widely regarded as one the most important auteur in contemporary American cinema, has actually always opposed to this idea. Though he (somehow reluctantly) admits everything goes through his own filter, in his interviews he constantly tries to minimalize his works and to give the best credits to his collaborators.

With his 1993 masterpiece SHORT CUTS, Altman, who considers the film one of his favorites, nevertheless always has insisted that the film is not only his: Everything in the film comes from Raymond Carver, on whose 9 short stories the film is based on, the film's soul is Carver's. He also repeats that the cast (an impressive list that contains 22 great actors) is what made the film as it is.

With this director-approved DVD edition--the first, long waited entrance of SHORT CUTS to the DVD market--, Criterion came up with a very simple solution to be faithful to the director's idea: they wraped the collection of the nine stories with the DVD in the same package.

In addition, they enlarged the supplements section from their original Laser Disc edition, which already contained the making-of documentary, to introduce a wider view on the film's creation. A BBC documentary takes one of the Carver stories (the one with the cop, his wife, and the dog) and examines how it was transformed to one of the film's story. They've also put one documentary about Carver as well as an audio interview of his. Also, a glimpse on the creation of the music to which many notable musicians has contributed (U2's Bono and the Edge, Dr.John, Elvis Costello, etc) is provided with some demo-tapes of Dr.John. And to complete that, instead of just interviewing Altman, they put Altman and actor Tim Robbins (now also a fine director in his own rights) in conversation, in which Altman gladly admits the actors many contributions, like it was Robbins' idea to make Anne Archer's character a clown.

With virtually all the DVD studios immitating Criterion's long-term efforts since their Laser Disc days of adding extensive supplements and audio commentaries, Criterion seems to be challenging on a new setp: not just hailing the director=the auteur, but really getting into the creative process of a film in a sober, intellectual manner. The DVD of Renoir's RULES OF THE GAMES was a fine example, and this DVD, with apparently full collaboration and blessings of Altman is another.

The new Hi-Def transfer from the original, first-generation print is also beautifully done, and for SHORT CUTS, with it etxensive length of 3 hours and complex structure, not to forget that it is so rich with small details that one might miss at first viewing, the DVD format which permits us to watch the film repeatingly, is an ideal format. Robert Altman himself insists that, "if you have seen my film only once... well, you haven't really seen the movie yet. You only saw the story. I make my films so that it must be seen many time if you really like it."

One mystery is that, Altman, who has always provided audio commentary for Criterion's edition, didn't record a commentary for SHORT CUTS, though it's one of his favorites. Well, he didn't with the original Laser Disc edition either. I think I now understand why he didn't: because SHORT CUTS doesn't need an audio commentary, and also probably because he cannot, since it's also Raymond Carver's film for him. Maybe he thought putting the book with the film permits more understanding than he can ever talk about.

Robert Altman is about to get an Honorary Oscar, so there is no better time to see one of his absolute greatest movies on DVD, SHORT CUTS (1993). Altman and co-writer Frank Barhydt have taken nine stories and one poem by the great regional writer Raymond Carver. They have mixed and matched them, then transposed the whole thing from the Pacific Northwest to sprawling Los Angeles. The more interesting, less touristy Los Angeles. This is close to my favorite Los Angeles movie of all time, and the author's widow thinks that Mr. Carver would love the final result.

The canvas is vast here-as always, Altman is working in Panavision 2.35, at 187 minutes, and with a cast of two dozen hand-picked actors. The result is exciting, original, gripping, and absolutely enthralling. The movie held me spellbound with its offbeat characters and Geraldine Peroni's miraculous editing of several plot strands together.

SHORT CUTS is not a movie for everyone. My own mother and sister would hate it. So let me give you a taste of what we have here. Bruce Davison is a doctor married to Andie McDowell and with Jack Lemmon as a dad. Their son is hit by a car on his way to school, so they stand vigil in the hospital. And since it is the day before the kid's birthday, baker Lyle Lovett bakes him an extra special cake-then goes berserk when the cake is not picked up. A very happy lower depths Lily Tomlin and Tom Waits live in a trailer and eat all their meals at the restaurant where Tomlin is waitress. Buck Henry, Huey Lewis, and Fred Ward go on a fishing trip, find a nude woman's body in the water, but do not report it. Jennifer Jason Leigh does phone sex out of her kitchen while feeding her baby and while husband Chris Penn wants to know how come she will not do that stuff with him. He works as a pool cleaner. Tim Robbins is a LAPD motorcycle cop married to Madeline Stowe, but having an affair with Frances McDormand. Anne Archer is a clown for a children's party. And Matthew Modine is married to Julianne Moore, who has a memorable frontal nudity scene when she spills wine on a party dress and takes it off to clean it.

And so it goes, slowly and meticulously for over three hours. But it held my interest completely, and the cast is working at world-class level under Altman's inspired and improvisational direction. If you like what I have said above, you will probably adore SHORT CUTS as much as I do. If not...rent something else. This is an adventurous and magnificent feast of a film that starts with medfly spraying and ends 187 minutes later with a quintessential Los Angeles earthquake that is almost over before it starts. I loved Los Angeles when I was going to both UCLA, then USC in the 1970's. Altman has captured its soul with a painter's eye and a poet's gift. It is very close to his best film, and I am very happy that he is finally getting a career achievement Oscar.

The Criterion edition sells for $40, but is worth it. The bonuses are downright awesome-a volume of the Raymond Carver stories used for the movie, a feature-length filmmaking documentary, a chat with Tim Robbins and Altman, a PBS documentary on Carver, a BBC documentary on the screenplay, audio interviews with Carver before his untimely death of cancer, and a look at the marketing of SHORT CUTS. Do them the night before you watch the movie, and try to watch the huge movie in one sitting. Happy viewing.

This is a review on the Criterion DvD:

As Criterion is the only studio to releasing the extrodinary film, it didn't take much to satisfy me. The dvd (as are most criterion dvds) is approved by the director Robert Altman. If anyone else is releasing this film (which is highly unlikey) will NEVER top this.

First off, the new high-def transfer is great. Supervised by editor Geraldine Peroni and approved by Altman.

An excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack mix. An isolated soundtrack also.

An informative, yet a bit boring conversation between Altman and Tim Robbins. I'm not complaining because there is NO SUCH THING AS A BAD EXTRA FEATURE!
Luck,Trust,and Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country,A great documentary on the making of Short Cuts. Maybe one of the best movie docs I've seen on a dvd. I believe it was made during the filming of the movie(maybe because the vhs quality of it).Mind-Bogglingly(I hope thats a word) extensive. 90min

To Write and Keep Kind, a PBS documentary on the life of Raymond Carver. It's O.K. almost irritatingly informative,but good.

a look inside the marketing of Short Cuts,deleted scenes, one hour audio interview with Altman, a clip from a BBC show tracing the screenplay.

It also includes a book especially made for criterion.

GREAT PACKAGING! Criterion comes through again. An obivious Must Buy.
10 outta 10

Some reviewers despise this movie because of the humor, some because to them it doesn't represent Carver's work properly. Well, taste differs, so that's for them to decide.
To me the film's humor is terrific. I get the feeling Altman got to do what he wanted without too many studio people telling him what to leave out. Sure, some characters are despicable, others are nervous wrecks. But some of them are nice and friendly - though often with a few hilarious ticks.
It's as if you are peeking in on parts of these people's lives - watching the mess through pink and orange sunglasses. You're involved from the first scene on, you judge and despise and you laugh until you can't no more.
And if at first you disagree with Altman's view of Carver, read the book - it comes along with the set.
Truely magnificent!!!!!

This is what the great Altman does best...throw dozens of people with unrelated issues, and discover how each individual touches the others' lives.The screenplay is amazing when you consider that there are so many circumstances and not one is more important than another because the film gels brilliantly as a whole. Altman's solid understanding is prevalent throughout. The acting, without exception, is first rate. It would be impossible to single out any one performance; however, Annie Ross' bluesy song stylizing was memorable, as well as Peter Gallagher's gleeful revenge against ex-wife McDormand. Jack Lemmon's "cameo" role was the apex of despair. These people are all haunted, in one way or another, as the stories develop: infidelity, neglect, death, misunderstandings, a sick child, negligent parents... and on and on. Altman handles each individual's reaction with generous layers of humor, pathos, discovery and total sincerity."Short Cuts" was at the top of every critic's Top 10, but it somewhat lost out at awards time. The Golden Globes honored it with a special "Best Ensemble" award, as well as a nomination for screenplay. The Oscars nominated Altman as Best Director, but it was the film's only nomination. I was surprised that one of Annie Ross' original songs wasn't nominated, or the absolutely brilliant editing of Geraldine Peroni, which kept this film riveting at all times. Not a slow moment, even at 3 hours. I recommend this film to anyone who appreciates film-craft and the wonders it can create. I'm amazed at this great new Criterion collection DVD presentation. I'm happy to own it.